I think I would love to teach the book "Little Brother" in my classroom, although I do recognize that it may be hard to integrate it in the classroom, simply because there are so many required texts that we have to teach. Because of this, "Little Brother" would be a really good choice book or to recommend to younger students. While this might change, as of right now, I think I would start students off with some type of anticipation guide. I would be curious to see how students think they would react if they went through similar events to what Marcus went through. I think that could spark a really good class discussion, which is something all teachers want. I think something like the 4 corners activity we did in class would be a good way to set students up in smaller discussion groups. While I might not have ten questions on the list like we did in class, I could come up with smaller amount of questions that relate directly to the book. It could be questions like "Was Marcus right to go against the government?" While this is sort of a lame question, it would be easy to mix students up and create groups. Some students may feel very strongly that Marcus was wrong, while others feel that he was in the right. Based on these groups that would be formed, we could do a project where students write a persuasive speech, including outside research, based on their belief of whether he is right or wrong.
As mentioned, 4 corners is a great way to create groups based on interests and could be done with a variety of questions. I could have questions like we did in class where they weren't really related to each other. Or, like I said with Little Brother, I could relate the questions to what we are doing or will be doing in class.
Snowball is another activity I would do in the classroom, although I would change it from what we did in class. I believe Snowball would be a really good way to create a round-robin type story, if the unit we are working on happened to be creative writing. Since one person would start the story and then past it along, seeing the direction the story took would be interesting. It would also be a good way to help students learn about plot flow because the story wouldn't be based entirely on what they did. However, like with most things, it would need to be carefully watched. Some students may write something inappropriate or not take the activity seriously and just goof off. My aunt is a third grade teacher and she did something similar in her classroom. The students came up with their own prompts, could write as long as they wanted, and then passed it off to another student. Ideally, the point was for each student to write on each story, but this didn't work out to well, but I think it's a really good, fun activity to do. Snowball could also be used to create discussion points in a classroom. What I mean by this is that students could each write down a thought or question they had about the text and then pass it along to other students to get their opinions. Then, we could come back as a class and discuss what was put on each of these points and see where that discussion took us.
I feel like another activity I might do would be the snapshot/tableaux dramas. In this activity, students pick a scene or are assigned a scene and they must decide how to "act" it out in front of their classmates. They don't really act it out, but they chose a pose and stay there for a minute or so. This requires that students first read the text, because they do have to know their scene well. Also, it would require them to interpret the scene. For example, if students want to re-create the scene of the rally in "Little Brother," they would have to decide how exactly they wanted to pose. Do they want to feature the band or Marcus and his girlfriend? Or, would they rather show the scene where the military comes in? It would require them to think about what is most important in this scene and how to "act it out." It also wouldn't be just based on the literature, but include some theatre elements. Students can think about costumes and props, which they would also interpret and analyze how it add to their understanding of the text. Again, the scene would need to be carefully picked in order to avoid problems such as being school appropriate. Also, the group dynamic would need to considered. Do I let my students pick their own groups or do I chose for them. Should I create random groups or place them in groups based on how I think they will work together? I think this would mostly depend on how much trust I have in my class. Some classes may be able to handle having a higher level of responsibility while other classes may not.
On the other hand, we can also use a higher level of technology, such as an online literature circle. In lit. circles, each person has a role, whether it is something like Connector or Passage Master. While I think there is still an obvious value to face-to-face discussions, online lit. circles are also beneficial. Students may feel less pressured to give an "educated" answer and will put simply what they think. I know I have seen some people who have been so concerned with sounding smart that they completely messed up what they were trying to say. Also, since students are assigned or chose their roles before starting the text, at least is most cases, they know what to focus on while reading. I know some students, myself included, can get so overwhelmed with trying to pick up everything that is going on in the text that they miss something crucial. Also, if we happen to not have a lot of discussion time in class, doing online discussions would make up for this. While I don't think I would change the form of this activity to much from what we did in Pytash's class, I may decide to use the lit. circle for the whole class, instead of groups of three or more. While online lit. circles are beneficial for other reasons than what I mentioned, we do have to consider that not all of our students may have computers or internet access. If we have a strict schedule, then we should give the chance for students to post during class by going to a library or computer lab. Also, we do need to keep an eye on what is being posted and we also have to consider that some parents may not want their students involved in an online activity.
Like with any activity, there are upsides and downsides to what may happen when trying to implement one. One has to carefully consider the chosen activity and make sure that it's not being used as busywork or to fill a slow day, but has some purpose. The texts we use also have to be carefully considered. Are they too controversial? Or just enough? Are we teaching to the text or are we finding ways to teach about the test while not teaching it? These are just a few of the questions teachers need to constantly think about and they are important questions. Of course we all want to be great teachers and not mediocre or even worse. I believe technology, whether it is something like using Snowball or 4 corners or using Wikis, blogs, or online literature circles, is what can take a teacher from mediocre to great, so long as the technology is used effectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment